What critics don’t get about Sally Rooney
To label her an over-hyped ingenue is to misunderstand her greatest conceit.
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
The poetic history of David Graeber
The posthumous publication of Pirate Enlightenment shows how the anarchist, like any true intellectual, never grew out of his childhood…
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In search of a language of loss
Is there a correct way to mourn? When my mother died, I scoured the literature of grief for answers
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Bret Easton Ellis: “Wokeness is running out of room”
The Shards is the famously morbid author’s latest “trickster book”. He prefers cabinet shopping to culture wars now.
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The prophet of post-fascism
The late Marxist intellectual Gáspár Miklós Tamás captured Europe’s disorientation after the Cold War.
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What Norman Mailer can teach us
It is right to condemn the writer’s violent chauvinism – but a literature that has lost the power to challenge is…
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Pico Iyer Q&A: “I feel radiant when staying in a monastery”
The travel writer on Paddington Bear, the joy of watching sport, and finding a cure for jet-lag.
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From Tom Crewe to Caro Giles: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt and a study of conducting by Alice Farnham.
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The secret lives of Katherine Mansfield
A century after the writer’s death, a new biography shows how she withstood colonial prejudice and terminal illness to produce…
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The New Statesman’s best books of 2022
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
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The best children’s books of 2022
From magical picture books to thrilling young adult novels, courage and joy are in abundance.
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Then Later, His Ghost: a Christmas story by Sarah Hall – Audio Long Reads
Christmas coming, a man and a woman in a lonely long barn expecting a child, a post-apocalyptic landscape, a journey…
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Why Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is still so relevant
Really, the only things separating Bob Cratchit from the average 2022 Londoner are electricity and the fact he could afford…
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Our fatal addiction to narrative
Once, stories helped us make sense of reality, argues Peter Brooks – now they have devoured it.
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An A to Z of Carmen Callil
Her friend recalls the “fiery and bewitching” founder of Virago Press.
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The wonder of children’s art
A new book of pictures and drawings is an attempt to help adults recall what the world looks like to…
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From Marguerite Duras to Anthony Seldon: recent titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bandit Country by James Conor Patterson and Looking To Sea by Lily Le Brun.
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The dark heart of Roald Dahl
A streak of pure nastiness runs through the author’s anarchic, beloved children’s literature – just as it did through his…
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What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gets wrong about free speech
The author says she prefers to read non-fiction because she senses so many novelists holding back due to “social censure”.…
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Cho Nam-joo Q&A: “I want to live without colliding with humans”
The South Korean novelist on K-pop, regretting the future and escaping to another planet.
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